Knit shirt or like garment



May 5, 1964 D. RAPPAPORT KNIT SHIRT 0R LIKE GARMENT Filed May 18, 1961 FIGI FIGZ IN V EN TOR.

D V M other. vvstitching is practically invisible which gives the appear- United States Patent O 3,131,555 KNIT SHIRT R LIKE GARMENT David Rappaport, 1 Deer Park Road, Great Neck, N.Y. Filed May 18, 1961, Ser. No. 111,101 6 Claims. (Cl. -171) This invention relates generally to the apparel art, and more particularly to a collar construction for knitted garments and the like, especially knitted shirts.

When a knit collar is fashioned so that it can be attached to a knitted shirt, it is usually constituted by a unitary knitted element rectangular in shape, and one edge of the collar is constituted so that it can be attached to the body of the shirt by a looping process which precludes unraveling. Due to the rectangular shape of the collar, the length of the points of the collar regulates the height of the collar around the back of the neck. In recent years, with the advent of short pointed collars in mens fashions, the collar elements are narrow in width and as the longer edges are substantially parallel, the back of the collar, in use, has very little height. However, it has been found that when the collars are made relatively narrow to provide the desired short points and a jacket is worn over the garment, although the points in the front will be visible, the collar in the rear is too low to project above the jacket. When viewed from the rear, a person wearing such a garment under a jacket or sport vcoat appears to be wearing only a jacket and no shirt at all, and presents an undressed appearance.

Knitted collars of the aforementioned type with finished edges that do not ravel, may be attached to the body of `the garment by a special looping operation which, in essence, is the equivalent of knitting one part to the As a result, a' very flat seam is provided and the ance that body and collar are knitted at the same time.

regular or nonparallel configurations on knit shirts, it has been the practice to cut knit sheet material to the shape desired, but this creates a problem of unraveling.

In addition, even in those establishments where un- Y-raveling does not cause a problem of major proportions,

the collar itself must be sewn to the body portion of the garment in order to attach it thereto. Usually, a plurall ity of sewing operations are required, one to sew the edge However, when it is desired to provide collars having ircovered by providing extra panels of material which also a cause additional bulk.

In thisV art, instead of providing sewed seams, it has been common practice to secure portions of knit articles together by means of a machine called a looper, rather This looping than to sew the articles in the usual sense. operation provides the aforementioned flat seam with substantially invisible stitches. However, one disadvantage is that the stitching, as previously stated, is the equivalent of knitting one part to the other and such stitching is incapable of inhibiting stretching of the garment for shape stability since knit articles are apt to be overstretched and thus lose their desired shape. In those constructions where sewing is used for seams, the stitches thereof to some extent prevent excessive stretching of the article and, therefore, stabilize the shape thereof, subject, of course, to breakage due to stress and tension during wearing of the garment.

With these defects of the prior art in mind, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a knit garment having a knit collar looped to the body of the garment and having small or short points, but which is high in ice the rear so that when a jacket is worn over this garment, the collar will nevertheless project above the jacket.

A further object of this invention is to provide an apparel seam construction wherein the seam is reinforced for purposes of strength, as well as to prevent excessive stretching thereof and thereby assure the stability of the shape of the garment.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a knit garment having simplicity, economy and efficiency in construction, and comfort and stability in use.

The foregoing objects and others ancillary thereto are accomplished according to preferred embodiments of the invention, wherein the collar of the knit garment is fashioned to the desired shape so that cutting thereof is unnecessary. The lower edge portion of this collar is bifurcated in cross section to provide two overlapping layers between which the upper edge portion of the body portion of the garment is inserted. Then, the edge loops of these layers are looped together in a loopingoperation performed on a looping machine wherein the stitches engage these edge loops and hold them together while passing through the body portion of the garment. These stitches appear very similar to knitting stitches and are not easily visible, yet the seam is smooth and substantially fiat. Since stability of shape of the article caused by stretching along this seam is desirable to retain shape stability and a dressy appearance even after considerable wear and washing, a substantially nonstretchable tape, which may be woven fabric or the like, may be inserted between one of the collar edge layers and the body portion to be secured in situ during the looping operation and thereby reinforce the seam.

The novel features that are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description of a specific embodiment when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several gures and in v which:

FIG. l is an elevational view of the upper portion of a garment which is spread open to illustrate the shap of the collar;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged detail view of the seam of the garment of FIG. l illustrating a portion of this seam open so that the various layers thereof are clearly visible, and

FIG. 3 is an enlargedvertical vsectional view of the seam taken substantially along the plane defined by reference line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, specically to FIG. l, a knit collar 10 formed in accordance with the present invention is shaped to have a substantially straight upper edge 12, side edges 14 and 16, and a generally convex bottom edge 1S including two downwardly and inwardly inclined side portions 19 and 20, with a straight portion 22 disposed therebetween. The marginal portions of the collar adjacent edges 12, 14 and 16 are, for example, formed of conventional rib stitches 24, while the body of the collar 26 may be formed of a variation of the conventional rib stitch, such as one that is formed by racking or shogging during the production of the rib stitch.

The foregoing arrangement tends to form stitches which are somewhat less elastic and smaller than the rib stitches, whereby the upper edge 12 of the collar will tend to assume a shape which is slightly convex, it being understood that this will greatly aid the collar in titting upon the lower portion of a persons neck when the garment is being worn. However, for purposes of clarity, this convex feature is not indicated in FIG. l, since the collar could very Well be formed of any other desired stitch arrangement, even one wherein the entire collar is formed by using the same stitch throughout.

Along the lower edges of body portion 26, a plurality of fashion marks 28 may be seen. The garment is fashioned along these edges in order to form the inclined portions 19, which are clearly visible in FIG. 1. Below the fashion marks 28 is a lower edge portion 30 of the collar that is formed of plain stitches which are commonly called jersey stitches. The main body of the collar is usually knitted in a double thickness to provide a degree of stiffness while the edge portion 30 is bifurcated to form two overlapping layers 32 and 34 of single thickness with the last course of stitches 36 of the body portion 26 being illustrated in phantom lines in FIG. 2.

Once the collars of the shape desired, such as that shown in FIG. 1, have been knit, they will be attached by a seam 37 to the body portion of the garment which may, for example, be a knit shirt. The body portion 38 of this shirt has its upper marginal portion 39 inserted between the collar layers 32 and 34, as clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. As also shown, a woven tape 40 may also be inserted between the layers along with body edge portion 39. Then, in order to form a neat and substantially flat thin seam 37, the lower loops 42 at the edges of layers 32 and 34 are looped together by a looping machine which inserts a yarn 44 between each of the loops, this yarn preferably being the same which is used in knitting the collar and body portion. Yarn 44 is inserted between each loop in a row of stitching 46 which very closely resembles the knitting stitches, so that this row of stitches or looping is hardly visible.

Referring to FIG. 3, it may be seen that the yarn 44 of the looping stitch 46 passes through fabric tape 40 and body portion 38, whereby as the loops 42 of layers 32 and 34 are looped together, the tape 40 and body portion 38 are also connected thereto while disposed between these layers.

In use, the collar is folded down along a line 50, indicated by phantom lines in FIG. 1, which extends between the junctures of the end collar edges 14, 16 with the body 38. This fold line 50 arches slightly above the seam 37 and it is readily evident that if the seam is parallel with the free edge 12 of the collar, as in the case of a standard rectangular collar, that portion forming the back of the collar has very little height. In contrast, according to the present invention, the same relativity between the seam 37 and fold line 50 provides a collar back portion of relatively great height and which will stand up around the back of the wearers neck.

It may now be seen that an apparel construction has been disclosed wherein a preshaped knit collar is fashioned, as desired, to have small or short points appearing in the front and yet the collar is sufliciently high in the rear to project above the collar of an outer jacket to present a neat, well-dressed appearance. The seam of the collar is substantially flat and comfortable to wear, covering panels or tapes are eliminated, and the stitching hardly visible, and is thus refined in appearance. Moreover, by insertion of tape 40, if desired, there can be no excessive stretching of this portion of the garment, and

4 therefore the stability of the shape of this portion of the article is insured.

Although a certain specilic embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it is obvious that many modifications thereof are possible. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except insofar as is necessitated by the prior art and by the spirit of the appended claims.

That which is claimed is:

1. A knit garment comprising a knit body portion, a knit collar having a bifurcated lower portion defining two overlapping layers, a reinforcing tape, the upper edge of said body portion and said tape being disposed between said overlapping layers, and a row of loop stitches between the edge loops of said layers and through the tape and body portion, whereby a smooth seam is provided.

2. A garment having a collar with points of regulated length and high rear portions, comprising a garment body, a knit collar having a generally straight upper edge, side edges, and a generally convex bottom edge having side portions inclined downwardly and inwardly to a central portion therebetween, said collar being fashioned to form the inclined side portions of the bottom edge, the lower portion of the collar being bifurcated in cross section to define two overlapping layers, the upper edge portion of said body being disposed between said layers, and a row of loop stitches connected between the edge loops of said layers and passing through said body portion to provide a smooth seam.

3. A garment comprising a knit collar fashioned to have the width of its central portion greater than the width of its end portions so that the collar will be high in the rear yet have short points, the lower portion of the collar being bifurcated in cross section to define two overlapping layers, a knit body having a marginal portion disposed between said layers, a row of loop stitches connected between the edge loops of said layers and passing through said body portion to provide a smooth seam.

4. The garment construction of claim 3 comprising a woven tape disposed between said body marginal portion and a layer of said collar, and having said loop stitches passing therethrough to maintain a controlled length of the neck size of the collar.

5. A method of forming a garment comprising the steps: knitting and fashioning a yarn to produce a collar having the width of its central portion greater than the width of its and end portions and a lower portion bifurcated in cross section to define two overlapping layers, inserting the marginal portion of a garment body between the layers, and looping the end edges of the layers together and through the marginal portion.

6. The method of claim 5 including inserting a length of tape between the layers along with the marginal portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 642,732 Thom Feb. 6, 1900 1,054,233 Mueller Feb. 25, 1913 2,584,834 Bevins et al. Feb. 5, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 270,202 Germany July 16, 1912 

2. A GARMENT HAVING A COLLAR WITH POINTS OF REGULATED LENGTH AND HIGH REAR PORTIONS, COMPRISING A GARMENT BODY, A KNIT COLLAR HAVING A GENERALLY STRAIGHT UPPER EDGE, SIDE EDGES, AND A GENERALLY CONVEX BOTTOM EDGE HAVING SIDE PORTIONS INCLINED DOWNWARDLY AND INWARDLY TO A CENTRAL PORTION THEREBETWEEN, SAID COLLAR BEING FASHIONED TO FORM THE INCLINED SIDE PORTIONS OF THE BOTTOM EDGE, THE LOWER PORTION OF THE COLLAR BEING BIFURCATED IN CROSS SECTION TO DEFINE TWO OVERLAPPING LAYERS, THE UPPER EDGE PORTION OF SAID BODY BEING DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID LAYERS, AND A ROW OF LOOP STITCHES CONNECTED BETWEEN THE EDGE LOOPS OF SAID 